CONSHOHOCKEN — The upcoming holidays will be bittersweet for fans of a landmark Italian eatery.

Although there’s no doubt that they will be able to raise a toast to 2013 at their favorite Totaro’s table, they’ll probably be enjoying their roses and chocolates at another romantic spot.

Sometime after New Year’s Eve and before Valentine’s Day, the Conshohocken icon at 729 E. Hector St. will close its doors and ultimately reopen under the ownership of The StoneRose’s Brian Pieri.

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“There is no blueprint as to how restaurants are supposed to go out of business, but I’m enjoying the fact that I didn’t do it in the middle of the night,” said co-owner Andrew Totaro, who announced the sale to his staff on Friday.

“It’s comforting that after all these years my people will be paid, and if somebody needs a recommendation I’m more than willing to help in every way. Most everybody that works here has always worked here. My pastry chef, Leslie McLaughlin, has been with me for 17 years.”

After New Year’s Eve, Totaro said he’ll maintain a skeleton crew and introduce a smaller menu in the 51-year-old restaurant’s final days.

“One of the things I’m really glad about is that anybody out there that has a gift certificate has the opportunity to turn it in,” he said. “If you have a gift certificate from 1991, we’re here for you. There are a lot of gift certificates out there; we’ve been in business a long time. I would love to see my old customers back here in every circumstance.”

When the restaurant was opened in 1961 by Totaro’s parents, Vince and Yolanda Totaro, the kitchen may have taken somewhat of a backseat to the bar, but that all changed by the late ‘80s, on the cusp of Conshohocken’s dining renaissance.

Totaro’s brother, Vince Totaro, eventually opened up his own successful eatery, Trattoria Totaro, on Spring Mill Avenue.

“Not only did I grow up in this business, I learned old school things from old school people,” Totaro said. “And then the bar changed, whether it was the times or all the development in Conshohocken, we’ve been changing for a long time. I took over the place my senior year of high school but we became a real restaurant when we got a chef from Milano, Italy, in 1986, by accident.”

That happy accident waiting for a place to happen came about when insurance companies began assessing their tavern clients based on how much food they sold, he recalled.

“So we wanted a cook to put in the kitchen to save a little money on the insurance.”

Over the years, the “accidental chef” was succeeded by a French gourmand and the one that Totaro credits for putting his restaurant on the map, Ken Ulsch.

“He was the magic in our kitchen,” Totaro said. “He was stolen from us by another restaurant, along with a waiter and a dishwasher, but then I stole him back, plus a sous chef and a pastry chef.”

That was in the late ‘90s, when Totaro’s became a hot dining spot for notables like philanthropist Walter Annenberg and Eagles owner Jeff Lurie.

“Our concern was always to have the greatest food,” Totaro said. “Even today my heavy cream comes from Lancaster and my pasta comes from my pasta ladies. We still handpick things. We have Rack of Lamb and buffalo, but we also still do Chicken Parmesan and cheeseburgers.”

He and co-owner-chef Dan Kreglo never played the typical fine-dining games with customers, he added.

“The bar is right next to the dining room, but I never tell people if you sit in the bar you can’t order from this menu, or in the dining room you can’t get that menu. You can order anything from any menu anywhere here.”

Despite his being at a crossroads, career-wise, Totaro’s passion for the business is still evident.

If his two-year search for a new partner to replace the retiring Kreglo had turned up a worthy successor, Totaro’s would never have gone on the market, he said.

“I love what I do. I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I’m good at it. Could I do it for another 10 years? Sure. But my kid’s a junior in high school and I need to re-set my priorities. I don’t want to reinvent the restaurant wheel again.”

Unlike the Blue Bell Inn’s transition to new ownership, there was never any question that the restaurant would simply close and come back to life as per Pieri’s vision.

“Keeping it as Totaro’s would almost be the worst case scenario for him, because everything he does would be compared to the old owners and I’m sure he doesn’t want that,” Totaro said. “He’s excited and aggressive and you can’t help but share his excitement.”

Three years ago, with a lot of grunt work and a fair amount of polish, Pieri, a successful stockbroker-turned-restaurateur, transformed a seedy watering hole on Fayette Street into one of the town’s most dynamic dining destinations.

This time around, of course, he’s facing no such challenge in tweaking an existing establishment to his own liking for a springtime rebirth.

“It’s an exciting opportunity to take over a Conshy landmark,” Pieri said. “It was officially agreed upon that we would redo the entire concept. Andrew didn’t want somebody operating under his family name and we didn’t want that either.”

He promised that the yet-to-be-named venue will be similar to The StoneRose “in principal as an ingredients-based place, but with a whole different menu.”

In the meantime, Totaro is planning to start a Facebook page where folks can share photos and memories of their times here.

“There were probably 30 couples who got engaged here,” he said. “And even though there will be some sadness, it’s not going to be now. I want people to have fun. Right now I want to enjoy the next couple of months with as much vigor and fun as I can.”